Island-Hopping in Indonesia

Orange House Tours of Seattle is offering its Indonesian Sampler tour, covering seven islands in 18 days. Guests will stay in first-class hotels when not cruising around the islands of Nusa Tengarra. While on the schooner, guests will have the use of snorkel and dive equipment, a cook for all the meals and private cabins with bathrooms.

The tour starts in Jakarta, then spends three nights in the Tanjung Puting National Park on Kalimantan. The lodge is 10 minutes away by boat from Camp Leakey and the Orangutan Rehabilitation Center. Participants may get a chance to feed an orphaned baby orangutan.

Then it’s on to Yogyakarta for two days and visits to the Hindu and Buddhist temples of Prambanan and Borobudor.

The cruise portion is four nights long from Sumbawa to Komodo, Sumba, Flores and Rinca. The tour ends on Bali at the Kupa Kupa Barong, a five-star hotel overlooking the Ayung River Valley. Participants can raft the Ayung River (class 3) in Ubud. There are temple dances and plenty of opportunity to shop.

Cost: $3,085 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, motor coach, entrances, cruise, most meals, porterage, guide and five inter-island flights. International air fare is not included.

Contact: Orange House Tours, 8536 20th Ave., Seattle, WA 98117; telephone (888) 529-9677 or (206) 783-4088.

Balloon Fiesta

Join Main Street Tours on a 10-day motor-coach journey to the “Land of Enchantment” in Albuquerque. The tour runs Oct. 1 to 10 during the Kodak annual International Balloon Fiesta. The trip begins with a night in Laughlin, Nev., before traveling to the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Then guests arrive in Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta. Hundreds of hot-air balloons take to the sky in an early morning mass ascension. Participants join the evening festivities when the balloons are illuminated like giant Christmas ornaments. After two nights in Albuquerque, guests will visit Santa Fe and explore Carlsbad Caverns. Overnight stops on the way home include El Paso, Texas, and Scottsdale, Ariz.

Cost: $910 per person, double occupancy, including transportation, accommodations, nine meals and sightseeing.

Contact: Main Street Tours, 1751 W. Torrance Blvd., Suite N., Torrance, CA 90501; tel. (800) 300-MAIN.

Mt. Etna and Wine

The influences of Mt. Etna and the Mediterranean Sea on Sicily’s culture and dinner tables will be explored on a tour Oct. 3 to 13.

Rising to nearly 11,000 feet, Mt. Etna’s high, rounded cone dominates the landscape of eastern Sicily. The tour features a private wine tasting and lunch at a baron’s farm on the mountain. After lunch, participants may walk on lava dunes and the moon-like Silvestri craters.

Tour participants will also learn about Sicily’s seafood and sweets. They will take a guided walk through the Catania Fish Market and later dine on swordfish, tuna and other local specialties. For dessert, Sicily is known for its gelato; participants will have a lesson in how it is made at a gelateria that has been run by the same family since 1868.

The 11-day tour also includes a visit to the archeological ruins of Syracuse; two nights at the beach resort of Taormina; and five days in Florence, Siena and rural Tuscany, all accompanied by experts in local culture and cuisine.

Cost: from $3,490 per person, double occupancy, including four-star hotels, meals, sightseeing and land transportation. Air fare is extra. Contact: International Dining Adventures, 106 Lynn St., Seattle, WA 98109; tel. (800) 447-6080.

Costa Rican Coast

International Adventure Travel is offering a 15-day biking, hiking and rafting adventure that traverses 145 miles through Costa Rica by muscle power. The trip starts and ends in San Jose, Costa Rica. There are four departures: Nov. 17 to Dec. 1; Feb. 16 to March 2, 1998; March 16 to 30; and Nov. 16 to 30. Space is limited to 12 participants.

The equipment consists of 21-speed mountain bikes, six-person self-bailing rafts and camping gear that will keep travelers warm and dry for their nights in the wilderness. The trip is physically demanding, but anyone in reasonably good shape should enjoy the balance of exercise and relaxation.

The trip is escorted by veteran wilderness guides who are experts in tropical outdoor adventure. Instruction is given throughout.

A Land Cruiser support vehicle will shadow the group across Costa Rica carrying all the equipment, tools and food.

Cost: $1,950 per person, double occupancy, including 21-speed mountain bikes, self-bailing rafts, camping gear, most meals, accommodations, support vehicle, guides, internal flight and airport pickup.

Contact: International Adventure Travel, 2 Toronto St., Suite 302, Toronto, Canada M5C 2B6; tel. (416) 461-6667.

Caribbean Blues Cruise

Blues musician Guy Davis will perform on a seven-day Western Caribbean Cruise on Holland America’s Veendam May 31. He will perform in several on-board concerts. The cruise sails from Fort Lauderdale to the ports of Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios and Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas.

Cost: from $1,408 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, one night at a hotel in Florida before the cruise, port charges and taxes.

Contact: Corey B. Litwin, Litwin Travel, 15250 Ventura Blvd., No. 110, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403; tel. (818) 789-8250.

Shakespeare and Golf

Ashland, Ore., is home to the Oregon Shakespearean Festival, but it is also the location for a golf tour Oct. 12 to 18. Guests fly into Medford and are transported to Ashland. Golfers play the first day at Grants Pass Country Club, then at the new Robert Trent Jones Jr. course north of Medford. Non-golfers can take a backstage theater tour or visit nearby Crater Lake. A trip is taken south into California and to Mt. Shasta Resort so members can play at the resort’s golf course. Players will also visit a new Arnold Palmer-designed course in the neighborhood of Klamath Falls. Evenings are open to attend plays in Ashland.

Cost: $1,320 per person, double occupancy, including lodging, five days of golf, van transportation and two theater tickets. Air fare and meals are not included. Contact: Personalized! Tours, 800 N.W. 6th Ave., Suite 201, Portland, OR 97209; tel. (503) 248-0414.

Storybook Switzerland

All Roads of Travel is organizing a tour to Switzerland Oct. 2 to 12 to join the celebration of the 150 Years Jubilee of Swiss Rail.

Participants will travel in Switzerland by train, lake steamer and cable car. Guests visit Geneva, Lausanne and Lucerne. Participants will stay in a hotel overlooking Lake Geneva, which is also convenient to the rail station.

Cost: $1,590 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, most meals, land transportation and entrance fees. Not included: air fare. Contact: All Roads of Travel, 3201 Eastwood Road, Sacramento, CA 95821; tel. (916) 486-8786.

Footsteps of Painters

Visit the South of France, including Provence and the French Riviera, Oct. 15 to 26 on a motor-coach tour that focuses on the works of French painters. The tour starts in Marseilles and Arles, where the group spends three nights, and includes excursions to Avignon, Pont du Gard, Fontvieille and Les Baux-de-Provence. Then it’s on to Aix-en-Provence for sightseeing and an overnight. The following six nights are spent in Nice with excursions to Cannes, Biot, Fernand Leger Museum, Grasse, Gourdon, Vallauris, Vence and its chapel Rosaire to see works by Matisse; Antibes and the Picasso museum; the Picasso and Chagall museums in Nice; St.-Paul-de-Vence and Fondation Maeght; Cagnes-sur-Mer with Renoir’s house; Villefranche; Cap Ferrat; Eze and the Ephrussi Rothschild museum in St. Jean Cap Ferrat. The trip concludes in Monaco and Monte Carlo.

Cost: $2,499 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from New York, accommodations, 10 breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners, porterage, escort throughout and transportation by motor coach.

Contact: Ellen or Eleanor, Clarkstown Travel, 198 E. Boston Post Road, Mamaroneck, NY 10543; tel. (888) 634-9656.

The Times is not responsible for changes in prices, dates or itineraries. These should be confirmed with cruise lines, travel agents or tour operators.